Method and Apparatus for Interconnecting Wireless and Wireline Networks

1. A gateway for interconnecting wireless and wireline networks, comprising: a plurality of micro-engines, each of said micro-engines comprising a memory for storing instructions for performing data flow processing of data packets for a respective stage of a pipeline process for interconnecting said wireless and said wireline networks; and a main processor for performing control processing of data packets for said pipeline process; wherein only said main processor comprises an operating system and; wherein each of the micro-engines associated with a respective stage of the pipeline process performs a table look-up function using a respective data packet header to determine if a data packet is capable of being processed by the respective micro-engines.

2. The gateway of claim 1 , further comprising a memory that is shared by the micro-engines and the main processor.

3. The gateway of claim 2 , wherein said shared memory comprises a multi-level hierarchy.

4. The gateway of claim 3 , wherein said shared memory comprises at least one SDRAM memory bank and at least one SRAM memory bank.

5. The gateway of claim 4 , wherein said SRAM memory bank stores at least one of active sessions, data structures and tables.

6. The gateway of claim 4 , wherein a Packet Routing Table is stored in said SRAM memory bank.

7. The gateway of claim 4 , wherein said SDRAM memory bank stores at least one of packet payload and inactive always-on session overflow from said SRAM memory bank.

8. The gateway of claim 1 , wherein the data flow processing of data packets for each stage of the pipeline process is performed by at least one micro-engine.

9. The gateway of claim 1 , wherein each micro-engine performs the data flow processing of data packets for at least one stage of the pipeline process.

10. A method of interconnecting wireless and wireline networks, comprising: performing data flow processing of data packets for respective stages of a pipeline process for interconnecting said wireless and said wireline networks via respective micro-engines, each of said micro-engines comprising a memory for storing instructions for performing the respective data flow processing; and performing control processing of data packets for said pipeline process using a global main processor; wherein each of the micro-engines associated with a respective stage of the pipeline process performs a table look-up function using a respective data packet header to determine if a data packet is capable of being processed by the respective micro-engines.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein if a table look-up fails, the respective data packet is forwarded to said main processor for control processing.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein said main processor configures data structures of received data packets for further data flow processing by respective micro-engines of subsequent stages of the pipeline process.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein if a table look-up is successful, the data flow processing of a data packet is performed by at least one respective micro-engine.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein after said global main processor performs the control processing of a received data packet, the processed data packet is forwarded to a queue for further data flow processing by said micro-engines.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the data flow processing of data packets in various stages of said pipeline process is performed in parallel by respective micro-engines.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the data flow processing of data packets in each of the stages of the pipeline process is performed by at least one respective micro-engine.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein each of the micro-engines performs the data flow processing of data packets for at least one stage of the pipeline process.

18. The method of claim 10 , wherein the data flow processing of a data packet for each of the stages of the pipeline process is performed in the sequential order of the pipeline process by respective micro-engines.

19. An apparatus for interconnecting communication networks, comprising: a plurality of micro-engines, each of said micro-engines comprising a memory for storing instructions for performing data flow processing of data packets for a respective stage of a pipeline process for interconnecting said communication networks; and a main processor for performing control processing of data packets for said pipeline process; wherein only said main processor comprises an operating system and; wherein each of the micro-engines associated with a respective stage of the pipeline process performs a table look-up function using a respective data packet header to determine if a data packet is capable of being processed by the respective micro-engines.